Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Swanage
Cast iron runs, painted timber boards and modern uPVC renewed or repaired across the town, with the material written on the quote before anything is ordered.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Swanage often means painted timber and cast iron, because getting on for three in ten homes here went up before 1919. On those buildings the boards and the gutters are part of the look, and on a listed one they are part of the fabric, which changes what you are allowed to put back.
Swanage rooflines, the older ones especially, need attention at the cast iron, the fascia or the soffit. A cast iron gutter rusted through at the back that now sends water down the wall. A painted timber fascia with the paint blown off and the joints opened. Or a soffit gone soft under a union that has dripped through several winters. If a cast iron length is hanging off its brackets over the pavement, or water is pouring down the stone, ring 07435 839745 and get it made safe before anything else.
Somebody goes up on your Swanage house and tests the boards with a screwdriver before any talk of materials, and looks hard at the fixings too, because within a couple of kilometres of the water those let go first. The survey covers every elevation, the verges and each downpipe, and it goes in writing, itemised, line by line. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Stone frontages, cast iron runs and exposed gables
Most of it reads from a Swanage pavement. Blistered and peeling paint on a timber board means water is behind the film and the timber stays wet, so another coat achieves nothing. A green stripe down the front of a board means the run over it has been spilling onto the timber season after season.
A gutter standing proud of the board, pulled away at one end, or sagging between brackets, has lost its fixings into soft wood, and a leaking joint at a union or a run overflowing in a downpour is a different fault again. Then the screwdriver: sound timber stops it, rotten timber lets it in like cork.
Cast iron is often worth keeping. Corrosion begins on the hidden inner face and works out, and the rust it leaves holds water hard against the timber behind. If the length is still whole it deserves lifting off, cleaning back to metal inside, painting there and re-jointing, rather than going in a skip, and on a listed building that is usually the answer anyway. For a length that is genuinely finished, cast iron is still cast today, and aluminium and thick section plastic are both made in matching mouldings that carry the same shadow line from across the road.
The rest of the run. Lengths and their unions, the brackets under them, the outlet, a hopper head, the downpipe and the shoe. That is the list to look down when a gutter misbehaves, not the length of it. We remove the old run whole, refix brackets at the spacing the profile needs and tighter on an exposed elevation, then re-hang to a fall taken off a string line, because a run hung dead level looks perfect and stands water in it every month of the year. Half round is the ordinary domestic profile, ogee carries more and sits flat to the fascia, square is the modern version, and a long steep slope or a valley discharging into an eaves run wants deepflow or a second outlet.
Behind the boards. Take the fascia down and the eaves is open. Rafter feet, and behind them the wall plate; the tilt fillet that props the bottom course of tiles; and the underlay, taken over a felt support tray so it drips clear instead of stopping on the board. BS 5534 covers that eaves detail and it is the first thing skipped when a roofline is sold as a facelift. On an unlisted house, capping over timber that is dry and hard is fair work. Over soft timber it is a lid, and your new brackets bite into nothing.
Air, salt and wildlife. Air comes into a cold roof at the eaves through the soffit, so soffit vents go back into the new board, or an over fascia vent instead, and the air gap over the insulation is left clear. Block that eaves ventilation and the felt runs with condensation while mould spreads over rafters that were sound. Approved Document F is the standard for it. In Swanage, under two kilometres from the water, salt settles up there and keeps everything damp between showers, going for the fixings before the boards, so non ferrous screws and clips on any seaward elevation. Every pipe has to discharge into a gully or a soakaway that genuinely takes it, because water at the back of the gutter leaves staining down a render and driving rain never lets it dry. Birds nest behind a soffit through any open joint, and moss and debris off the tiles pack an outlet solid.
How it runs
Replacing fascias, soffits and gutters on hill street houses
Tell us what the roofline is doing: a gutter dripping at a joint, a fascia gone soft, a soffit with gaps where birds get in. Thomas comes out, looks along each elevation and prices it himself, and one written quote then covers the whole job. The quote gives each run its own line: access, stripping the old fascia, soffit and bargeboard, the new boards, the gutter, the outlets and each downpipe, and disposal.
In this town the access is the first question. A terrace with its eaves over a narrow pavement may need a scaffold licence, a stone house three storeys up the hill wants a full platform, and a bungalow run at Herston comes off a tower. Boards come down one length at a time, so the rafter feet are never open to the weather overnight, and the old plastic and timber leave with us. Near the sea, brackets and screws are stainless or aluminium, never plain steel. Should the rafter ends or the wall plate behind a board be rotten, you see it in a photograph, with a price, before we go further.
Putting boards and rainwater goods back as they were is repair, and regulation 12 of the Building Regulations 2010 is where that line sits. Inside the Swanage conservation area, a switch from cast iron or timber to plastic on the front is worth raising with Dorset Council first. On a listed building the gutters and hoppers are fabric, consent comes under section 7 of the Listed Buildings Act, and listed building consent explains the process.
Cost
What a roofline costs to put right near the sea
A metre of fascia over a bay window is a different job from a metre on a plain gable, so nobody should quote you a rate per metre over the phone.
The platform. Swanage's three storey terraces running down towards the bay, flats where the roofline belongs to the whole building, and bungalows on the hill each want different access. Work at height rules decide what goes up, and it is priced as its own line.
What the old boards were hiding. Once a fascia comes off, the rafter feet and wall plate are either sound or they are not. Capping rotten timber in plastic just hides it, so we take the old boards off and tell you what is there.
Salt and the seaward side. Swanage salt air eats cheap steel brackets and screws from the edge in, and the rust stains the render below. Fixings rated for a coastal site add a little to the materials and keep a run on the wall in a south westerly.
Downpipes, hoppers and the fall. Every outlet, hopper and downpipe is counted on its own, and a gutter hung dead level is re-hung to a fall so it stops holding water.
Questions to ask anyone else: are the old boards coming off or being clad over, which fixings are specified, and are the soffit vents and downpipes included?
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging down or a fascia rotted through
A length of gutter off its brackets over a pavement, or a fascia soft enough to push a finger into, needs dealing with before the next storm. Ring us for this one, not the form.
The first visit gets the loose section down or supported and the water sent somewhere it will not soak the brickwork or stonework, and the full run is priced once we see how far the rot goes. Planned work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Something hanging or pouring? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.
Worth knowing
If it is listed, the gutter is not a shopping decision
Swanage has a very large number of listed entries for a town its size, and plenty of them are ordinary houses rather than churches and manor houses. That matters for a roofline because listing covers the whole building. The cast iron gutter, the hopper head, the moulded fascia and the deep bargeboard all count as fabric, so taking them off and putting white plastic up is an alteration rather than a repair, and it can need listed building consent.
None of that means you are stuck with a leaking run. Repairing cast iron in place, or replacing a rotten timber board with the same section and moulding, is usually straightforward and rarely contentious. Swapping the lot for plastic is the part that needs asking about. The order to do it in matters: get somebody up there to say what has actually failed, get the profile, the section and the material written down, have the consent conversation, then order. Doing it the other way round is how people end up with materials they cannot put on the building.
Who you are dealing with
Rooflines from Studland to Corfe Castle
Our base is 80a Wolverton Road in Boscombe, 10 miles away, and we take roofline work across Swanage, Herston, Durlston, Studland, Langton Matravers and Corfe Castle. Dorset Council is the council for all of it. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Swanage, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The owner, Thomas Hannen, comes out to price every roofline in person. Checkatrade shows a verified customer's 10 out of 10. We charge nothing to visit, and the written quote, itemised run by run, is free as well.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Swanage?
Most repairs in Swanage need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Swanage |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Swanage. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Swanage Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Swanage. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about fascias and guttering in Swanage
How do I know if my house is listed?
Listing is a matter of public record and worth checking before you order anything, because there are a great many listed entries in Swanage and plenty are ordinary houses. If yours is one, the gutters, hoppers and boards are fabric and altering them can need consent.
Can a rusted cast iron gutter be saved?
Usually yes. Corrosion starts on the inner face nobody can paint, so a length still holding together can be dropped, cleaned, painted internally and re-bedded. That costs less than replacement and is far simpler to get past a consent officer.
Does the sea air reach the houses up the hill?
Yes. The whole town sits under a couple of kilometres from the water, close enough for salt to settle at eaves level and keep metal damp between showers. It goes for screws, bracket bolts and downpipe clips first, so we use non ferrous on the exposed elevations.
Will you match a moulded timber fascia or bargeboard?
Yes. We copy the section off the board that comes down, seal the ends and prime every face before it goes up. That preparation is what decides how long it lasts, so it gets its own line on the quote.
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Get the section, the profile and the material written down
Thomas Hannen prices every job himself and puts the material on the quote, so a listed building conversation is short. Free visit, free written itemised quote.